Sunday, July 15, 2012

PACT Fact Sheet.

Who we arePACT is an international, non-profit organisation registered both in the US and the UK. The charity was founded in 2000 by Lady Meyer, wife of the then British Ambassador to the United States. Its patrons are Cherie Blair, wife of the former British Prime Minister, and Laura Bush, the First Lady of the United States.

Our missionPACT’s mission is to fight parental child abduction across borders, and to help the police locate and retrieve missing children.

Why we existEvery year, hundreds of thousands of children around the world go missing or are abducted. Some of these children are forcibly separated from one parent by the other; some are abused, exploited or murdered; others simply disappear, never to be found. PACT was created to help ensure the protection of these children.

What we are doing and what we have achieved

Stampingout parental child abduction across bordersPACT has succeeded in raising significant international awareness of the urgent need for better laws to protect children. As a result, PACT has played a role in drawing up new legislation in the EU, the UK and the US. It has participated in several Congressional hearings in the US; initiated Parliamentary debates in the UK; and enrolled the support of key politicians, including two US Presidents and the British Prime Minister. PACT continues to press governments to recognise that parental child abduction raises issues of public policy and human rights, and to act accordingly.

Finding missing children

PACT works closely with the British Police and is a member of the Steering Oversight Group which devises and coordinates policies related to missing adults and children. We were invited to sit on the Steering Group, which drew up the Guidance on the Management, Recording, and Investigation of Missing Persons. Other examples of PACT’s partnership with the police in the drive to find missing children are:

Funding of poster campaigns, in which photographs of missing children, downloaded from the Website, are displayed across the UK in supermarkets, bus shelters, and car parks, thanks to the help of several partners from the private sector.

Explaining, and advocating the increased use of, the Child Rescue Alert, which instantly disseminates across the media details of a missing child.

Funding projects

PACT has funded several important projects to establish more precisely the scale of the problem of missing children; the long-term effects of abduction on children; and how these should be treated.